Plays push to top of B.O. heap

'Hat,' 'Horse' join tuners in Broadway top

NEW YORK — “The Motherfucker With the Hat” muscled its way into Broadway’s Top 10 in week 7 (July 11-17), with the final sesh of the Chris Rock starrer posting a B.O. spike thanks to last-minute biz.

It’s not often that plays join the ranks of the razzle-dazzle musicals that usually dominate the Rialto’s list of top sellers. But in this case, “Motherfucker” ($870,024) came in behind another non-tuner, “War Horse” ($976,735), which continues to maintain its thoroughbred momentum on the strength of Tony wins and an elaborate puppet design that has become the show’s B.O.-enhancing star.

Also bringing back some coin to the Rialto was Daniel Radcliffe, who performed a full week in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” ($1,177,086) after an abbreviated five-perf sesh necessitated by the star’s temporary absence the prior week, timed to the opening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ and its attendant promotional duties. Revival’s grosses leapt by almost $430,000.

Despite such gains, overall Broadway sales generally held steady, with the week’s cume down just slightly to $21.3 million for the 25 shows on the boards, according to figures compiled by the Broadway League.

The 21 musicals grossed $18,822,066 for 88.2% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 202,930 at 84.7% capacity and average paid admission of $92.75.

The four plays grossed $2,515,452 for 11.8% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 27,148 at 89.6% capacity and average paid admission of $92.66.